


Aperture Science But the AI is Self-Aware

by kenmarlenn



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half-Life but the AI is Self-Aware, Portal (Video Game)
Genre: ASVRAI, Ask Blog-led, Found Family, Gen, Portal AU, Tags will be added/changed as things go on!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25885396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenmarlenn/pseuds/kenmarlenn
Summary: New hires snatched from Black Mesa’s applicant waiting list, visitors, mysterious alien entities–you’re here because we want the best, and you are it.This week, the second week of May 1998, Black Mesa is going to do something BIG. Some sort of test. So obviously, we at Aperture are going to do something better. Bigger. The testing of our new AI, GLaDOS, during Take Your Child to Work Day. Surely nothing will go wrong, not with our star employee Gordon Freeman manning the Red Phone!So: Who is ready to make some science?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18





	1. May 13 (Prologue)

**Author's Note:**

> This story is led by askers (nanobots) sending in asks to my ask blog for this AU, asvrai.tumblr.com. So if you want more chapters, go and send in asks!!

“Dad?”

Gordon Freeman had been having a strange dream.

“Daddy!”

Something about Black Mesa, and a disaster…

A sharp tug on his lab coat startles Gordon out of his nap. Blinking blearily, still trying to register where he is, he focuses on who, exactly, woke him. Joshua, his six-year-old, smiles up at his father and waved a manila folder in his face.

“Hm?” Gordon mumbles, reaching for the file. “What’s up Joshie?”

Joshua smiles and taps his fingers on his father’s chair. “Mr. Bubby brought you some work.”

Gordon sighs, flicking through the folder. It seems that, indeed, his boss had given him some busywork to complete while he sat at the Emergency Phone. “Right. Thanks kiddo.” Joshua’s attention is already elsewhere, staring off into the wide chamber housing the experiment meant to debut tomorrow. Whenever he looked at it Gordon got chills up his spine, but seeing his son in the same room made them much worse. “Why don’t you go find Chell?” Gordon suddenly suggests. “I’m sure she needs help with her project.” At the mention of his best friend, Joshua grins widely. He pauses to give Gordon a quick hug and runs off, leaving Gordon to rub the sleep from his eyes and reflect on his dream.

 _Black_ _Mesa_? Gordon chuckles. _As if. No Aperture scientist would be caught dead in there._ And of course, that’s what he was - an Aperture scientist. Snatched right out of college by the titan of scientific research, apparently highly recommended. By whom, he had never been told, but it certainly put a stop to his plans to apply elsewhere. Alright, so maybe he had wanted to work at Black Mesa. But who was he to argue with a job being handed to him right out of college? Sure, things had been a little boring. A job sitting at a phone in case an AI turns itself on and tries to kill everyone was way below the pay grade of a theoretical physicist - except he was still being paid well. So really, who was he to complain?

Joshua, at least, thought coming to work was exciting. With no one at home to take care of him, and his other parent still in New Mexico, Joshua was part of Aperture’s employee daycare program. Apparently, that ‘program’ meant the children were allowed free reign of the facility, despite the neurotoxin and turret production areas being quite near the main playroom. Most of the time they managed to stay out of trouble and out of the scientists’ way, but sometimes…

“Gordon, why is your child running around the AI department touching my equipment?”

Joshua was being escorted into the room by a tall, thin man. His hair, or what was left of it, is gray and thin, and the wrinkles on his face would indicate he was old, but Gordon knows that he is a good twenty years younger than he seemed. Sharp teeth flash as he speaks, the only real indication that he was anything but human. Gordon winces, seeing his boss looking so annoyed. The old man holds the child by the arm, but his grip is gentle.

Joshua looks more perturbed by being caught than whatever he had done. “Chell did it too…” he mumbles.

“Oh!” Gordon grabs his son’s other hand and his boss passes him over. “Sorry, Dr. B, I didn’t think he’d get into much trouble.” He glances down at the child, frowning. “He knows better than that.”

Joshua huffs and avoids his father’s gaze, scowling at the floor. “I just wanna watch Mr. Bubby do science stuff!”

“That isn’t my name, Joshua,” Dr. B sighs. This is a conversation that Gordon has heard before, but the resignation in his boss’ voice indicates that the two have had it more often when he wasn’t around. “It’s Bubnick. Dr. Bubnick.”

Josh smirks, a look that Gordon is sure he picked up from Chell. “Okay, Mr. Bubby!”

Dr. B throws his hands in the air in exasperation, but somehow Gordon feels that it was mostly for show. The head of the AI department had started out his career at Aperture in a particularly unusual way - as the most advanced product of Aperture’s cloning program. Artificially grown to age 20, cognitive functions and a basic knowledge of most kinds of sciences hardwired into his brain already. The doctor was never shy about his origins, but would never admit what Gordon had already figured out - that despite his rough attitude, he was fascinated by children, and was shockingly good with them.

“You finish that work I sent Joshua down with, Freeman?” Gordon blinks and looks at his watch. It’s already nearly time to clock out for the day - Joshua had woken him from his nap a whole half hour ago. He must have zoned out more than he'd realized. “Sorry, Dr. B,” he sighs, “I didn’t manage it. I’ll do it on Friday.”

Dr. Bubnick gives him an incredulous look. “Why not tomorrow?”

“The big ‘Take Your Daughter to Work’ thing is tomorrow, with the AI being tested and everything, so I’ll have to actually do my job. And do it well,” Gordon argues. “I won’t have time.”

His boss snorts, crossing his arms. “Nothing will happen. My team has made sure of that.”

“You haven’t even turned it on yet with the Genetic Lifeform component, so your safeguards only work in theory.” Gordon lets his voice raise. “You always talk about what happened the first time! If Joshie or any of the kids get hurt…” He stops, realizing that his son was still in the room. He smiles shakily at him, thinking quickly. “Joshua,” he calls, pulling his son's attention away from the giant AI chassis in the middle of the room, “why don’t you go and say goodbye to Chell? Tell her we’ll bring some materials for her from home for the project tomorrow.” Without another glance towards the AI, Joshua chirps an affirmative and rushes back out of the room, leaving Dr. B and Gordon alone in the chamber.

“I understand the concern, Gordon,” Dr. Bubnick assures his coworker, “But I promise. Everything will go smoothly with the experiment tomorrow.” He walks to the door and steps out, holding it open for Gordon to follow. He snorts, “I mean, who do you think we are, Black Mesa?”

“Yeah…” Gordon mutters, gathering his papers. He looks back at the GLaDOS project, still unable to shake the chills running up his spine. “Yeah, it’ll be fine.”

**Gordon Freeman - Clocked Out: 4:36 PM, 5/13/98**


	2. May 14 (Bring Your Daughter to Work Day), Part 1

**Gordon Freeman - Clocked In: 8:32 AM, 5/14/1998**

**Current Time:** 9:01 AM

**Time Until GLaDOS Activation:** 1 Hour

Good luck.

The Aperture Science security nanobots were out in full force today. Not that anyone could tell. Minuscule invisible bots flit from place to place, watching each employee and visitor to make sure that they aren’t breaking any rules. One man in particular they swarm around, sending data to each other and trying to place his face. He has a visitor badge pinned to his green shirt, so he can’t be an intruder, but something felt off to the little bots.

Ultimately one recognizes the man and sends the information to the swarm - this is Dr. Harold Pontiff Coomer, a scientist from Black Mesa. At the mention of the rival company, the swarm begins to buzz in agitation, catching the man’s attention. 

“Hello nanobots,” Dr. Coomer says cheerfully. “They told me you would be around!” A device in his hand - the Aperture Science Portable Phone Prototype™ he had been given at the entrance - chirps as a nanobot sends a message:  _ Why are you here? _

The doctor keeps walking, forcing the swarm to land on his shoulders in order to keep up. “Why, I’ve been  _ personally  _ invited to Aperture Science to be the judge of the science fair they are hosting today!” He gestures around the hallway, at the various tables and whiteboards set up with equations and tri-fold poster boards and various experiments. “I’m not sure why they brought in someone from Black Mesa, especially considering the friendly rivalry between the companies. And the fact that they are revealing a major experiment today.” The nanobots chime their agreement on his device as Dr. Coomer grins again. “ But isn’t young science beautiful?”

As Dr. Coomer walks around the hall, he realizes that almost all of the experiments appear to be identical. They’re all potato batteries. “The judging isn’t for another thirty minutes, but I’ll tell you who I’ve got my eye on.” Coomer murmurs under his breath with a wink. The nanobots’ receivers pick up his voice easily. 

“The standouts for the contest are little Heather, who has made a lovely baking soda volcano,” he gestures to a nearby table, where a blonde girl stands with a woman in a lab coat putting finishing touches on her project, “and Chell.” He stops in front of a table that looks almost exactly like the others. “Her potato battery itself is unremarkable,” Dr. Coomer confesses, “but her poster board is incredibly humorous. Plus…”

“GO CHELL!” A little boy with brown hair stands by the table as well, cheering loudly as an older girl with an Aperture brand sweatshirt tries to quiet him while doubling over in silent laughter. 

“… her presentation includes her own personal cheerleader it seems!” Coomer grins and moves on, feeling nothing as the nanobots on his shoulders move to find someone else to check on.

At her table, having gotten Joshua to stop cheering, Chell pats her potato gently. In the past few minutes it seems to have gotten both bigger, and lumpier. “So what’d you add?” Josh whispers, pointing to the materials section of Chell’s poster board. On it, the girl had noted that she used a ‘secret ingredient’ from her father’s lab.

Chell begins signing in response. {You know how my dad studies biology?} Joshua frowns. He likes Chell. She is a whole two years older than him, and is very smart, but she uses words in ASL sometimes that he doesn’t know. {Life stuff,} Chell clarifies. {So he happened to have some goopy stuff lying around his lab.} She shrugs and pats the potato again. {Dunno what it does, but odds are it’ll be something at least a little interesting.}

* * *

The swarm of nanobots splits up. Half to the observation room, where Dr. Bubnick and his crew are observing the AI chamber and prepping for activation, and half to the AI chamber itself, where Gordon Freeman sits on his Aperture Science Portable Phone Prototype™, talking to Dr. Bubnick. 

_ Please repeat the emergency protocol,  _ his device chirps, interrupting their conversation. Gordon sighs and repeats, apparently from memory, “My station is in the AI chamber. I’ve got its list of commands on a screen on the wall so I can easily see if the AI is doing something wrong. The Red Phone on my desk connects to another phone up in the observation room, where Dr. B and the rest of the team can be alerted to turn off the AI if it accesses something it shouldn’t.” He gestures up towards the observation room and makes a face. “Apparently that’s also a cue for something else to happen, but I’m not privy to knowing what it is.”

Gordon could hear the smugness oozing from his boss’ voice. “It’s a secret, Gordon. We had to practice creating artificial ‘intelligence’ before finishing this one. May as well put it to good use.”

* * *

**Current Time:** 9:28 AM

**Time Until GLaDOS Activation:** 32 minutes

The nanobots spread themselves out in the observation room, checking monitors and the scientists manning them. One little nanobot, however, spots a man with an Aperture lab coat and Black Mesa regulation tie standing by the mess of wires connecting various devices. The discrepancy in uniform leads to a facial recognition scan, which leads to an alert to the other bots in the area. Now they all know that this man is Tommy Coollatta, a very,  _ very _ recent transfer from Black Mesa. The nanobots swarm together again, settling in around the brand new employee. 

_ Dr. Coollatta! What are you up to?  _ the bots send to his device. At the sudden noise, Tommy jumps in alarm and stands ramrod straight, hands clasped behind his back. 

“Oh! H-Hello!” He peers around and, seeing nothing, he sighs. “Nanobots, right? I’m just… uh, checking… the wiring, for the emergency phones. To make sure everything is- is OSHA compliant.” The nanobots send a flurry of question marks to the phone, and Tommy laughs under his breath. “Y-Yeah, I know that’s not usual. Uh, well, I transferred here from Black Mesa. Uh, today. So I’m… I’m the new OSHA compliance officer. Yeah.” 

A nanobot flies around his back and broadcasts its view to the others. Another message appears on his phone.  _ Dr. Coolatta, are those wire cutters? _

“Oh! Um, they- they’re not!” Tommy waves his hands frantically in denial, revealing what are most certainly wire cutters in his hand. He hides his hands behind his back again, stuttering even more now. “I m-mean, they’re for um, for OSHA…. compliance…” 

Tommy frowns and brushes his shoulders, sending the nanobots flying. He pulls out the wire cutters, the fingers on his other hand threading through the wires inside the panel. “… I’m sorry, I-I need to do this,” he says, turning off his phone. The nanobots are helpless to do anything as he cuts the landline wire connecting the two emergency lines.

* * *

An alert is quickly sent to the nanobots near Gordon, but they just as quickly send back a negative - with thirty whole minutes until GLaDOS’ activation, it seems that Gordon has temporarily abandoned his post to join his son for the science fair judging. The nanobots in the observation room, recovering from Tommy’s unexpectedly accurate hit, ping Dr. Bubnick’s device instead. 

_ Hey Dr. B, you or someone else should REALLY check the phone line. I think something's wrong. _

Dr. Bubnick sighs heavily. “Dr. Coollatta was just over there checking on it,” he mutters, then sighs. “But I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to double check.” As Dr. B leaves his station, he passes Tommy, who nervously nods to his boss in greeting. The doctor begins poking and prodding at the wires around the phone, slowly following the line from the phone itself to where it enters the wall… to where Tommy cut it. 

The nanobots chirp to each other, triumphant as Dr. B turns to his device again. “The wire is fine,” he snaps. “You’re wasting my time.” The bots’ cheer quickly turns to confusion. One little bot notices that Tommy’s already strange yellow eyes seem to glow in the fluorescent light. “The AI activation is in 30 minutes,” Dr. Bubnick scolds, “I need to make sure the backup plans are ready to go. And not talking the ears off my team…”

**Author's Note:**

> Keep the story going at asvrai.tumblr.com/ask !


End file.
